Whatever It Is You Are Called Upon To Do
by Mondhase
Summary: Spoilers up until 1x18 Providence. He was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was an agent of HYDRA. And he had vowed to himself to bring one of them down. Because no matter how hard it would be, he was ready for whatever it was he was called upon to do.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story is inspired by something Ward said to Skye back in F.Z.Z.T. when they were discussing what was happening to Jemma. That quote is also practically the only sliver of hope I have still left that Ward might not be a complete traitor, but to be honest, it's fading rapidly. **

**So this is me being in denial:****  
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**Whatever It Is You Are Called Upon To Do**

Looking back, going into Agent Hill's office that day had probably been the hardest thing he had ever done in his life up until that point.

Agent Garrett had always been like a father to him. He had rescued him out of the hell that was his childhood home and he had given him a purpose in his life. So when he had first told him about that other organisation, the one hiding within SHIELD, Ward had not even considered it an act of treason to join them, to become a part of HYDRA.

They had similar goals after all, to stop the constant wars raging all over the world, to stop the threat of terrorism, to stand up against their enemies that were not from this planet, they just varied concerning their means. And even though Garrett had admitted that HYDRA was probably more uncompromising in its actions, he had assured him that it was also a lot more effective.

And so he had followed along, obeyed the orders of his SHIELD superiors to keep up his cover, but at the same time reported everything to Garrett and did whatever his HYDRA bosses wanted him to do. And even though he had not been comfortable with everything he had to do for them, he had never doubted his decision, because he had never doubted Agent Garrett.

That is until the day one of Garrett's current team members contacted him, looking for advice as he had noticed something odd in his boss's behaviour. Something alarming.

The man had contacted Ward because they had once been on a mission together and had worked well side by side. He had trusted him and wanted his opinion on how to handle his suspicions regarding his superior. Ward had told him not to do anything rash, to wait until he had absolute proof that Garrett was dirty before he did anything that might mess up his entire career.

And then, not even five minutes later, he had been on the phone again, talking to the man in question over a secure line and telling him everything about what he had just found out. But he had not meant for anyone to get hurt. He had begged Garrett to talk to his man, to convince him that following Hydra was the right thing, like he had convinced Ward all those years ago, and he had only let off once his former boss had promised he would.

But two days later he found out that that had been a lie.

Officially it was just a mission that had gone wrong. A red headed assassin who was in the right place at the right time, and when the SHIELD agent had opened the door of his car two bullets had pierced his skull before his feet had even touched the pavement.

But Ward knew that that was a lie as well. Garrett had killed his own man for asking the wrong questions and he had helped him. That had been the first time he had been responsible for the death of another agent. And he knew that if he kept following HYDRA, it wouldn't be the last time.

So that was when he had decided to come clean, to turn himself and Agent Garrett in. He had gone straight up the ladder to Director Fury's second-in-command Agent Hill and told her everything he knew, about the things he had done, about Garrett, about HYDRA. But there had been too many questions he hadn't been able to answer. Too many unknown variables.

"_Who else is HYDRA?"_

"_How far up does this go?"_

"_What exactly is HYDRA trying to achieve?"_

He wanted to tell her, to help bring these traitors down, but he simply didn't know. He wasn't even sure if Garrett knew all the secrets, but there were definitely a lot of things he had never told him, things Ward would have needed to become a lot deeper involved for to be privy to.

And so Agent Hill had begun to ask the questions he _could _answer.

"_Who else knows you're here?"_

"_Nobody."_

"_Would you be willing to go back in?"_

"_To do what?"_

"_To take them down. To take all of HYDRA down."_

"Yes_."_

"_Good. Then I want you to contact Agent Garrett and tell him that you're tired of sitting at the sidelines. That you're willing to get more involved. And then you wait and get ready. "_

"_Ready for what?"_

"_For whatever it is you are called upon to do."_

**To be continued...**

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**A/N: Alright, so this is not going to be anything big, two chapters, three at most, dealing with what Ward had to do as a double agent in HYDRA, which is my personal fantasy I'm still entertaining at the moment.**

**Because even though the show has made it more than clear that Ward actually has feelings for Skye, I do not think that that is enough to redeem him if he is otherwise a traitor through and through. Even if he were to betray Hydra and kill Garrett to save Skye, he still murdered so many people that him changing his mind just because he wants to save her is not good enough to save his character IMO.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This story is developing pretty much on the spur of the moment, as I'm trying to cope with what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is doing to us right now.**

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**Whatever It Is You Are Called Upon To Do**

**Chapter 2 **

Joining Coulson's team had been easy.

Being part of the team, not so much.

As he had told Raina, all that had been needed to get on the bus had been a recommendation from Garrett and his own insistence that he was _not_ a team player, and Coulson had been hooked, seeing him as just another project to get invested in.

The assignment had been to blend in with the team, earn their trust and gather intel on Coulson, but in the beginning Ward hadn't been sure that this was even worth his time. He had wanted to get deeper into HYDRA, to find the leaders of the organisation, and he hadn't really been convinced that following around Coulson could help with that.

But he had been so very wrong.

The mystery of Coulson's miracle recovery had went up right to the highest levels of SHIELD, to Director Fury himself and with the team leading the hunt for Centipede, Garrett's pet project, Ward soon found himself right in the centre of everyone's attention. In order to keep SHIELD from finding out too much, he had been given access to a lot of information Garrett had been keeping from him before, each and every bit of data allowing him to advance further into the centre of HYDRA.

But there had been... obstacles. Variables he had not seen in advance, or rather had not expected to be much of a problem.

While his topmost loyalty was to SHIELD, of course, he still had to do everything in order to appear loyal to HYDRA. Which he had known would at some point most likely mean betraying his new team.

Near zero contact, that had been Garrett's instruction and Ward had tried so hard to follow it, to stay emotionally detached, because even though his boss had promised that there would be no bloodshed, he had still known how much it would crush his teammates once they found out that he was a traitor.

But that, as he had soon realised, had not been as easy as he had believed in the first place. Not once he saw Coulson risk his career, his life, for one of his team, or after he watched Simmons try to sacrifice herself for all of them, showing a lot more bravery than he had thought her capable of at first.

Even his two men mission with Fitz had left him with unwanted attachments after the scientist had proven not only his loyalty to him, but also his courage in the face of danger, impressing the trained specialist.

And even Agent May, the Cavalry, had somehow managed to surprise him. While she had been just as strong and unwavering as her reputation had promised, Ward had also found her to be surprisingly caring. It had always been obvious how much she cared about Coulson, but despite their agreement that their relationship would be merely physical, he had soon realised that she cared about him, too. And, perhaps most surprisingly, about Skye.

Skye.

She had been the unknown variable from the beginning, but in so many more ways than he had anticipated. Ward had become her S.O. to keep his eyes on her and to gain influence on her, but he had not foreseen how much she would influence him in return.

He had tried to deny it for a long time, had started sleeping with May in parts to push it away, but at some point he had had to admit to himself that he had developed real feelings for his rookie, which was most likely the worst thing he could have done.

He had played his part as well as he could, had tried to balance his loyalties without letting his personal feelings get in the way.

"_You and I see the world differently, that's all."_

Sometimes he felt like that had been the only true thing he had ever said to Skye. There had been so much calculation on his part, so many times were he had weighed off what he would tell her and the others to make himself more likeable, more trustworthy.

He had told Skye about his brothers, knowing that she had had a terrible childhood herself and would be able to relate to him over it. He had kept mentioning her heroic sacrifice to Simmons, knowing that while the experience had been traumatic for the scientist, it had also been something she was secretly proud of.

He had repeatedly shown his trust in Fitz's abilities in the field, having realised how important it was for the engineer to be treated like a partner and not a liability on a mission.

Even May he had managed to manipulate, though maybe not as much as the others. In the beginning, sleeping with her had not been planned. They had just sort of needed each other after their contact with the berserker staff, but he had gladly continued their relationship, however casual it had been, in an effort to undermine her vigilance regarding him. And it had worked.

Or at least it had until his true feelings had been forced to the surface, courtesy of one Asgardian goddess.

By that point his self-control had already been pushed to its limits, of course. He was good at his job, and by now going undercover had become second nature to him, but seeing Agent Garrett after Skye had been shot, knowing that he had been the one responsible, it had taken all of his restraint not to put a bullet in his brain then and there.

But then everything would have been for nothing and it wouldn't have helped Skye, either. She had been his only priority at that point, everything he cared about and in that moment he had not cared whom he would have to follow to save her. SHIELD or HYDRA, it hadn't mattered, just as long as she would live.

**To be continued...**

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**A/N: Okay, one more chapter, I guess. And don't worry, the next chapter for So Long is coming, I just need a little more time to line up the scenes for the upcoming parts of the story.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Whatever It Is You Are Called Upon To Do**

**Chapter 3 **

Out of the shadows – into the light.

That hadn't been supposed to happen!

None of this had been supposed to happen.

He had already shot one man, Thomas Nash, in order to keep Garrett's secret, to stop the hunt for the clairvoyant, but then HYDRA's coming-out message had rang out across the globe, tearing his life apart in an instant.

At first he had still had hope that he might be able to keep up his cover and stay on the Bus with his team, but then everything that could have possibly gone wrong had gone wrong, and suddenly Ward had found himself with a gun in his hand, three dead SHIELD agents lying in front of him.

If only Garrett had kept his big mouth shut in the first place instead of slipping up in front of Coulson, both of their covers would still be intact right now, and he would be fighting side by side with Skye and the rest of his team, instead of against them.

"I want to see him _suffer_." Oh, and how he had meant it. But not yet. Garrett's time to pay for everything he had done would come, but right now Ward still needed him to get deeper into HYDRA and so he had joined Agent Hand when she had left the Hub to transport his former S.O. to the Fridge. And he had already had a plan on how to take out the female agent and the two guards accompanying them without killing anyone, but to be honest, he had not counted on how much of a sociopath she had been.

When Agent Hand had offered him, urged him, really, to shoot Garrett, he had felt his heartbeat speeding up in his chest, knowing that not just his cover, but his entire mission, had depended on this very moment.

Knowing his superior's reputation, he had been sure that she would have most likely shot Garrett herself, had he refused to do it, and he hadn't been prepared to let that happen. Not now, not when HYDRA was finally coming out of the shadows.

He had cursed himself inwardly for not bringing an ICER with him, leaving him with nothing but his regular sidearm, which he had pulled out of its holster slowly, taking his time to check the magazine and release the safety, dreading what he was going to.

Every fibre of his being had told him not to do this, had reminded him that he had taken this assignment in the first place to keep any more SHIELD agents from getting hurt, but in the end he had known that he had no other choice.

He had put a bullet in each of the guard's heads, to make it quick at least, and one in Victoria Hand's chest. The look of shock on her face before she had fallen to the ground still haunted him, and yet he had not hesitated to put two more bullets into her back, to make sure that she was really dead and to show Garrett that he hadn't grown soft under Coulson's leadership.

It had been an execution really, and he had known that he could not show any remorse for his actions. Not if he had wanted Garrett to keep believing that he was still a loyal follower of HYDRA.

After that, he had sworn to himself that he would do everything in his powers to avoid further casualties, but when they had entered the Fridge, he had been forced to break that vow again immediately.

Garrett seemed to enjoy putting him in these situations, because once again he had found himself without a choice. Because while he had intended to neutralise the two guards in the elevator with the sleeping gas they had brought for the rest of the building's staff, by tipping them off about their HYDRA connection, the older agent had essentially forced Ward to shoot them both on the spot. After all, they did have automatic weapons and the element of surprise had been the only real advantage on his side.

Two more.

Two more dead SHIELD agents on his conscience, and by now Ward wasn't sure where it was ever going to end. But he had already invested way too much into this assignment – his career, his life, his very soul – to give up now.

At this point it was all or nothing and he was willing to do whatever it took to prove himself an indispensable member of HYDRA, to get to the centre of the organisation, and to destroy it from the inside. And he wouldn't just cut off its head, allowing for two more to grow back, no, he would set it on fire and he would watch it burn to the ground, no matter the consequences.

Looking back, going into Agent Hill's office that day had probably been the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.

But only up until that point.

Because the truly hardest thing he had ever done was what he was doing right now, standing in the main room of that secret base Coulson had found, holding a gun at him and Skye, seeing the feeling of betrayal reflected in their eyes.

**To be continued...**

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**A/N: Alright, so it's one more chapter (most likely), but then I'm really done (probably). But I definitely want to finish this before the next episode airs, because I just know that they're going to wreak havoc on my idea anyway.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Whatever It Is You Are Called Upon To Do**

**Chapter 4**

The job had sounded easy enough in the beginning. Meet up again with the team in the secret base they have discovered in Canada, as long as his cover was still intact and get Skye to decrypt the hard drive with all the data they had taken with them from the Bus.

His entire body had still been hurting like hell from the beating Garrett had given him to sell his story, that he had just barely managed to escape HYDRA's assault on the Fridge, but the easiness with which he had managed to convince his teammates of his loyalty and good intentions had proven to be worth the pain.

Skye had been so glad to see him again as she had welcomed him into the hideout and so worried about his injuries, sending a surge of guilt through him at the realisation that his wounds were nothing compared to the pain he was going to cause her once she found out that he was working for HYDRA.

But he had pushed the feeling down, not allowing his emotions to compromise his mission. Instead he had pushed forward and did everything he could to get the young woman to help him with the hard drive. The ultimatum Garrett had given him hadn't left him a lot of time to be patient and so he had played the one card he had known would get her to do what he asked of her, their feelings for each other.

For a moment there he had allowed himself to give into his feelings for Skye, to follow the longing he felt for her, knowing that this would be the last time he would ever be close to her. There would not be a happy ending for them, Skye would never be his, not after she found out that he had betrayed her and the team this entire time. And so, when they had been alone in the infirmary after Jemma had treated his injuries, he had taken the opportunity to kiss Skye, had savoured every second of it, painfully aware that the warm and almost loving look in her eyes would soon become cold and full of hate.

"I'm not a good man, Skye." The words had left his mouth before he had been able to stop himself, his desire to tell her the whole truth about him growing. But he had known that he couldn't do it. He couldn't jeopardise his mission, not even for Skye. And so he had told her about killing Nash, the fake Clairvoyant, once more, letting his guilt darken his features, knowing that Skye would show him sympathy and kindness in return.

And she had.

In that moment he could have asked her for anything and the hacker would have given it to him without question. But there had been only one thing he had wanted from her, had allowed himself to want from her, and so he had mentioned the hard drive, wondering how much damage HYDRA could do with the things they had stolen from the Fridge, and suggesting that they took another look at the data they had on some of these objects like the weather machine. And of course Skye hadn't suspected a thing. And why would she have? He was her S.O., her friend and the man she had feelings for; there was probably no one else in the world, except maybe Coulson, whom she trusted as much as him.

That is, until he had screwed it all up.

It had all gone so smoothly at first. They had gone into the information centre of the base, Ward with the hard drive in hand and sat down at one of the computers. He had handed her the drive to plug-in, which Skye had acknowledged by rolling her eyes.

"You know, I might be the computer expert here, but if you want to keep working in this business, you should at least know how to plug in a hard drive, Ward, really." He had grinned at her remark, getting infected by her lightheartedness, causing him to reply without thinking.

"Well, you're the only one who can open the data, anyway, so I thought you might as well start the drive up, too." It had taken him a second to realise what he had just said, but the instant Skye's hand had frozen in mid-air, just as she had been about to attach the data cable to the computer, he had known that he was in trouble.

"What?" Skye had looked at him with confusion in her eyes, disbelief and denial dawning only slowly on her features. "How... how do you know that I encrypted the drive and that I'm the only one with access to it?"

"Well, it's what you would do, isn't it?" He had replied in a desperate attempt to keep up pretence, but he had immediately seen that the young hacker wasn't convinced. There had probably been too much betrayal and backstabbing going on lately for her not to be wary of the signs. She had completely ignored his weak explanation and instead looked at him intensely, her eyes searching his for the truth.

"Why would you try to access the information on the hard drive; you were escorting Agent Garrett to the Fridge, where would you even have had the time or the opportunity for that?"

"Skye, I didn't…" He had started to explain, but the young woman had already gotten to her feet, eyes fixed on him, as if she had been afraid to leave him out of her sight for even a second. She had taken the drive and shoved it into the front pocket of her pants, unwilling to leave it with her fellow agent.

"Yeah, you're right. Listen, can we deal with this later, there's this... thing that I was supposed to help Coulson with, so...let's do this another time, alright?" Inwardly he had reprimanded Skye for coming up with such a terribly lame excuse, knowing that she was usually a must better liar, but in the end, the only thing he had felt had been dread, a horrible dread settling deep into his stomach as he had known what he would have to do next.

He had risen from his seat as well, his hand reaching out for his rookie, but she had pulled away from him with incredibly quick reflexes.

"Skye...," he had tried to reach her again, but the young woman had ignored his words and hurried towards the exit instead.

"Skye!" She had been almost at the door as the harshness in his voice had made her stop at last and caused her to turn around slowly. Ward hadn't even noticed when he had pulled out the gun or pointed it at Skye, but he had soon realised the effort it had taken to keep his hand steady as the weapon pointed right at his rookie's face.

"_Why_?" He had expected denial, tears maybe or her pleading with him, but this silent acceptance of the fact that even _he_ was a traitor, was HYDRA, was probably worse than anything else.

"Does it matter?" He had asked in return, his voice completely emotionless.

"No, I guess not." Her voice, or rather the sadness and defeat in it, had sent a shiver down his spine, but he had blocked it out, not allowing himself to recognise the pain he was causing both of them with his actions.

"Now you're going to step away from the door, come back here and finish this." He had nodded his head in the direction of the computer, but Skye hadn't moved from her spot and had just kept staring at him accusingly. Finally she had reached into her pocket, very slowly as if she had been afraid that he would shoot her at a rash movement, and had pulled out the hard drive again, holding it up for him to see.

"You mean finish decrypting this? How about you start on your own?" And before he could have done anything to stop her, Skye had suddenly tossed the drive in his direction, forcing him to lower his gun if he hadn't wanted the data on it to possibly be destroyed forever. He had caught the drive, but that distraction had been everything that Skye had needed to escape from the room and run off in the direction of Agent Koenig's office where Coulson would be. Cursing under his breath, Ward had followed her, but had soon had to realise that the chances of catching Skye and bringing her back to the information centre without anyone noticing was practically zero. He had had to accept that his cover was blown and start acting according to who would pose the biggest threat to him. Skye and Coulson he could take and Koenig didn't seem like he was much of a field agent at all, so they didn't have to be his first priority.

No, his first priority had been back in the engineering room the last time he had seen her and so he had hurried there, finding two startled looking scientists looking back at him as he all but burst through the door.

"Where is May?" He had asked, looking around searchingly. But before either Fitz or Simmons had had the opportunity to answer, May's voice had come from the back room where most of the base's weapons were being stored and a second later the female agent had entered his view, her expression completely calm as usual, a large shotgun which she must have been examining a moment ago still in hand.

"I'm here, what is it?" Not bothering to hide the urgency in his expression, Ward told the first thing that came to mind, without going into too much detail.

"Coulson wants to see us immediately, it sounded like some kind of emergency." May nodded simply and walked back into the weapon's room to return the shotgun.

"Did he say what it's about?" She asked from the other room.

"It's about HYDRA. I think Coulson found another double agent." His voice had been even, not betraying the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"Are you sure?" He had been able to hear her approaching the doorway again, and his grip on the weapon he was holding concealed at his side tightened.

"Pretty," he had answered a split second before May had come back into view, and he had pulled the trigger before the agent had had any chance to prove why people still called her the Cavalry.

"Whoa!" Fitz had called out in alarm as Agent May had collapsed to the ground, the blue colour passing over her motionless features indicating the use of dendrotoxin. "Why the hell did you just do that?" The engineer had cry out, completely startled and Simmons had rushed over to check on her unconscious teammate.

"May is working for HYDRA, Coulson has found proof of that. He wants you both to come to Agent Koenig's office immediately where he will explain everything."

"Oh, don't be silly," Simmons had argued, looking up at him from her position on the floor. "Agent May is as much a HYDRA agent as you or I are. She might have been reporting to Director Fury, but she isn't a traitor, and I'm not going to leave her here like this, so whatever 'proof' Agent Coulson has, it will have to wait for a few more minutes."

Clenching his jaw in frustration, Ward had put the ICER back in its holster, only to pull out the small calibre gun he kept tucked behind his back.

"You know, we could have done this the easy way," he had began, pointing the gun at May. "But I really don't care either way. Now _that _was an ICER, _this _isn't," he had explained, cocking the gun before aiming it at Agent Simmons. "Now get up!" He had ordered calmly, startling the scientist so much that she had actually complied without even realising it.

"I... I don't understand what's going on. Why are you doing this, Agent Ward?" The look on her face had reminded him of a wounded deer, clearly in pain, but not able to grasp the reality of what was happening.

"Jemma," Fitz had called out to his partner softly, but he had needed to repeat her name once more for her to finally react and look at him. "Jemma, he's doing this because _he_ is HYDRA, not Agent May." For a moment Simmons had looked about ready to argue against him, to call Leo an idiot for even suggesting something this _impossible_, until the fact that Ward was still aiming a gun at her chest had finally begun to register.

"No," she had uttered silently, her eyes fixed on Ward's, looking for any other explanation for his actions. "No, that's not true, right? Tell me that that's not true!" There were tears shining in her eyes and the desperation in her voice was almost palpable, but the dark haired agent completely ignored it as he continued.

"Sorry, but it's true. Now move it, both of you!" Ward had gestured for the two scientists to get out of the room and into the corridor, and after a long moment of hesitation, which had caused him to release the safety of his weapon, they had ultimately complied, Fitz pulling the biochemist close to his side as they walked.

With the two scientists in front of him functioning as his shield, Ward had silently pulled out the ICER from its holster again without them noticing. Right now nobody was forcing his hand, he had a choice and despite the fact that they now believed him to be a traitor, he wasn't going to be responsible for getting his former teammates killed. Not if he could prevent it.

He had heard Agent Koenig long before he had even come around the corner. Knowing the layout of the base, the level six agent had found a way to circle around Ward to come up behind him, but there had obviously been a reason for the man to be sitting in a secret hideout in the middle of nowhere instead of being out in the field. He was clearly no field agent and his approach had been so sloppy that Ward had almost felt bad for shooting him in the head with the dendrotoxin as soon as he had glanced around the corner several meters behind him and his hostages.

Jemma had yelped in shock, but Ward had urged her and Fitz forward and into the main area of the base where they had found themselves face to face with Skye and Coulson who were both aiming their weapons at him. And by the looks of it only Skye's was an ICER.

x

"Really Ward, HYDRA?" Coulson's voice pulled him back into the present and the tall agent focused on his opponents, but without pointing the guns in his hands away from Fitz and Simmons.

"So how long have you been selling us out to them, huh? From the beginning?"

"What do you think?" Ward merely replied, looking coldly at his former C.O. Skye was staying out of this confrontation so far, serving only as backup to Coulson, and he was incredibly glad for that, because he didn't want to focus on the way she was looking at him now.

"You know, despite all the secrets and lies that come with being a SHIELD agent, I always thought that I was a good judge of character, but I guess that was naive and foolish of me to believe. Garrett was my friend, I've known him for decades, but _you_, I must have been blind not to see it."

"Infiltration is what I was trained for, _Sir_," he added in a sarcastic tone, "so I knew what I was doing. HYDRA is everywhere, we have infiltrated every level of SHIELD, so it can't really be that much of a surprise that you had a mole on your own team. But the hiding is over, there will be no more games, so I suggest that you both drop your weapons right now and surrender, unless you want to lose two more members of your team."

He let the hand with the ICER in it sink to his side, and instead put the real gun right to the back of Simmon's head, giving it a little shove for good measure.

Coulson exchanged a short glance with Skye, the young woman looking extremely frightened and unsure of what to do. In the end he nodded to her and lowered his weapon, indicating for her to follow his lead.

"Drop them!" Ward repeated his order, watching the two agents warily. "And then kick them over there under the cabinet." He nodded in the direction of the large piece of furniture standing at the wall, big enough to present a real obstacle for anyone who wanted to retrieve something from underneath it.

Grudgingly, both Skye and Coulson finally complied with his order, but the second their weapons vanished from sight, Ward raised the ICER in his hand and shot Simmons in the back, causing her to collapse on the spot.

"Jemma!" Fitz called out in shock and just barely managed to get a hold of the young woman before she could hit the ground, instead lowering her down gently.

"We were friends! We trusted you!" He was kneeling beside the unconscious biochemist, studying her face worriedly, but when he finally looked up at Ward, accusation burning in his eyes, he was met with the muzzle of the ICER being pointed in his face and a second later he slumped to the ground as well, coming to lie next to Simmons.

After the two scientists were taken care of, Ward directed his attention back to Coulson and the team's rookie, aiming his normal gun at them once more. He quickly reached into his back pocket, pulling out a pair of cuffs which he threw at Skye, and nodded his head in Coulson's direction.

"Cuff him, hands behind the back!" He ordered briskly, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"It's alright," Coulson assured the hacker gently, allowing her to restrain him without resistance.

As soon as that was done, Ward let his gaze run across the room quickly, his expression brightening as he spotted Skye's laptop on a table in the corner. He pulled out the hard drive from his pocket and set it down on a surface a few feet in front of Skye, before increasing the distance between them once more.

"Now get your laptop and decrypt the data, I won't tell you again!"

For a long moment the young woman merely stared back at him, her brown eyes filled with hurt and disappointment, but also something else. Anger.

"And what if I don't? Are you going to shot me then?" Her voice was harsh as she spoke for the first time during this confrontation, but Ward shook his head, his expression almost surprised.

"No, of course not," he answered her honestly, causing a tentative hope to flicker across Skye's features for a brief second, before he continued. "I'll shoot him." He shifted his gun from Skye to Coulson, his aim steady and his gaze unwavering as he kept looking at the hacker.

"Now do it already!" But Skye wasn't ready to comply and she looked at Coulson for guidance, the senior agent shaking his head decisively.

"Don't! HYDRA can _not_ get their hands on this information, Skye, you can't help with..." The loud noise of the gunshot almost drowned out Coulson's grunt in pain, as the bullet tore through his arm, leaving him gasping.

Skye's eyes widened in shock as she flinched back, not really having expected this.

"The next time I'll aim at his kneecaps, so I suggest you start working," Ward threatened her again, showing no remorse for shooting the unarmed man. He knew that Coulson could take it and that he would have considered it a reasonable price to pay if he had known what was at stake.

No longer able to deny the seriousness of the situation, Skye glanced from Coulson to her former S.O. and back again, her expression almost apologetic as she kept looking at the older man.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let him do that. I know you're willing to die for SHIELD's secrets, but I'm not willing to let you." And so she picked up the hard drive and moved over to her laptop, beginning to work immediately.

Deleting the security measures she had installed on the drive didn't really take long and so it was only a matter of minutes, until Skye unplugged the drive again and moved over to Ward to hand it to him, her gaze shifting over to Coulson repeatedly as she noticed how pale he had become by now.

"That's far enough." Ward announced suddenly, causing Skye to look up at him in surprise.

"What, do you think I'm going to disarm you?" She asked, one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"No, but I think you just might be stubborn enough to try," he replied matter-of-factly, and the slightly sulky expression on the hacker's face told him that he had actually hit the nail on the head.

"Put it down there," he ordered instead, pointing at the table standing next to her, and Skye complied, setting the hard drive down hesitantly as she knew how much damage it could cause. But instead of backing away, she looked up at Ward once more, sadness the only emotion left on her features.

"Was any of it real? I mean I thought that we were friends, maybe more than that even, but for you, you and me that was nothing but a part of your mission, right?"

Ward looked at her for a seemingly endless moment, not knowing what to say. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but couldn't, and also so much that would cement his loyalty to HYDRA, but that he couldn't bring himself to say to her, not wanting to hurt her any further than he already had.

So instead he approached Skye slowly, but as he leaned forward, apparently about to reach for the hard drive, he suddenly shot the young woman with the ICER, catching her in his arms before she could fall to the floor.

He briefly caught sight of Coulson's worried expression, but the agent stayed where he was, the blood loss from the wound on his arm obviously having taken its toll on him.

Ward pressed the unconscious girl in his arms against him for a brief moment, aware that this was goodbye for them.

"It was real," he whispered into her ear softly, his lips concealed by the hacker's long hair falling over her shoulders. "It would have been so much easier if it hadn't been, but I do love you, Skye, and no matter what happens, that will never change. But you can't have feelings for me, not anymore. Not after what I've done and what I'm still going to do." He glanced up again to make sure that Coulson hadn't heard his words, but now he laid the hacker down on the ground gently, brushing away the strands of hair that had fallen across her face before he stood back up and directed his attention at the only member of SHIELD still left standing, even if only barely.

"You know you're not going to win, right? HYDRA has caught us by surprise, I'll give you that, but SHIELD isn't beaten that easily. We'll get back on our feet and when we do it'll be HYDRA's turn to run."

"Pretty brave words for a man who can barely stand on his own anymore," Ward replied, eyeing Coulson's poor state for a moment. "Seems like I got you pretty good there," he cocked his head in the direction of the still bleeding gunshot wound he had caused earlier.

"Yeah, but that doesn't matter," Coulson replied, not missing a beat. "I'm not the only one left fighting against you, and if this is going to be it for me, someone else will pick up where I left off."

"Stubborn till the end, aren't you?" Ward's tone was a mixture of frustration and admiration as he kept looking at his former C.O., not surprise at all to find his resolve still unwavering, even after everything that had happened.

"What do you think?" Coulson asked in return, smiling at the younger agent. But instead of answering him, Ward simply shot him with the ICER as well and watched him crash to the ground, landing on his injured arm.

After holstering both his weapons and stashing the hard drive securely, Ward was already about to leave the bunker again, but stopped once more as he found something holding him back.

"_I've spent time with Coulson, he's a good man. Someone who'd lay down his life for you. Don't you owe a man like that something?"_

Raina's voice echoed through his mind and of course Ward knew that she had been right. He owed Coulson so much, and even though it would probably have proven his loyalty to HYDRA for good, he couldn't take the risk of him bleeding out from his injury.

He knew that doing this would raise some serious questions regarding his loyalties, but Ward pushed that thought away as he uncuffed Coulson and got a first aid kit to fasten a tourniquet on his arm. It wasn't much, but it would make sure that he lived long enough until Simmons would wake up and be able to help him.

When Ward finally left the secret base behind, he forced himself not to look back. He had to sever all ties to his old team, to the people he had called friends, and to the woman he loved if he ever wanted to finish his mission.

He would always be an agent of SHIELD, but for now he had to be an agent of HYDRA.

**The END**


End file.
